Zitat"The Obama administration is teeing up one of its last fights with Big Food — this time over salt.

Voluntary targets for how much sodium should be in processed foods, from soup to potato chips, are expected to be released as early as this summer, current and former administration officials tell POLITICO.

Reducing salt consumption has long been part of the administration's push to get Americans to eat healthier. But a plan to nudge food companies to take steps to voluntarily reduce sodium in their products, launched seven years ago, has been stalled amid concerns about political blowback and new studies questioning whether salt is actually a pressing health threat. Most of the sodium Americans consume comes from processed foods.

One former top FDA official said he believes a lawsuit brought by a consumer advocacy group will finally shake loose the voluntary targets that were completed two years ago but have never been released. The FDA agreed in February to respond by June 1 to the petition from the Center for Science in the Public Interest. [a far left outfit]

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The government's reduction targets wouldn’t be mandatory — and the industry would likely have a decade to meet them — assuming the draft guidance is completed by the end of President Barack Obama’s term and embraced by succeeding administrations. Still, the idea stirs dread among some food manufacturers that would be under pressure to reduce an ingredient that gives their breads, crackers and sauces their trademark taste.

“We have concerns that the science that would be the basis for the new sodium targets is outdated and something of this magnitude and long-term impact should also include more current research,” said Roger Lowe, a spokesman for the Grocery Manufacturers Association.

The industry cites recent studies suggesting that high-sodium diets do not increase disease risks, even as most public health officials stand behind another body of research linking excessive salt consumption with high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.

“For more than 35 years, FDA has dragged its feet and refused to do anything to protect Americans from excess sodium in the food supply,” Michael Jacobson, president of CSPI, said last October when the group sued FDA. The group alleges the agency violated the law by not responding to the group’s 2005 petition seeking strict regulation of salt and warning labels on high-sodium products. “The government’s inaction condemns hundreds of thousands of Americans to early deaths due to preventable strokes and heart attacks,” Jacobson said then.